The Secret Lives of Heroes

Fate Points

What are Fate Points?
Fate points give character the means to affect game play in significant ways, by greatly improving the likelihood of success on important rolls. Each character has a limited number of action points, and once a Fate point is spent, it is gone for good.

Starting Action Points
A new character starts the game with 3 action points no matter their starting level.

Acquiring Fate Points
Your character gains a Fate point when they take any of the following actions during a session; these actions only reward a Fate point once during a session:

Acting in accordance with your Nature

Acting against your Demeanor

Acting in accordance with a Desire

Acting in accordance with a Moral Code

Working against a Shortcoming

Working against a Conflict

Additionally, a GM can reward you for good roleplaying, clever thinking, or doing something that really contributes to the story in a fun and interesting way with a Fate point.

Players can also reward other players for good roleplaying, clever thinking, or doing something that really contributes to the story in a fun and interesting way. Each player may reward another player in this way once per session for free, afterwards, they must do so using their own Fate Points.

Using Fate Points
Spending Fate point is considered a non-action. Doing so has one of the following effects:

Good Fortune: You gain Advantage on your next die roll; unlike normal advantage, which can only be used on d20 rolls, this can apply to ANY die roll. You can actually choose to do this after you roll the die, but before the outcome is determined; if you know the outcome (like knowing the DC you must beat), you may not do this after you roll.

Misfortune: Once per encounter, you can give the opposition Disadvantage on their next die roll; unlike normal advantage, which can only be used on d20 rolls, this can apply to ANY die roll. You must do this BEFORE the opposition rolls.

Last Resort: Force a reroll on the LAST die roll that was rolled in the game; the results of the new roll must be taken. If it was multiple die, like with some damage rolls, all the die involved must be rerolled. Note that this can be used to force anyone’s die to be rerolled, not just your own.

Declaring a Story Detail: Sometimes, you want to add a detail that works to your character’s advantage in a scene. For example, you might use this to narrate a convenient coincidence, like retroactively having the right supplies for a certain job (“Of course I brought that along!”), showing up at a dramatically appropriate moment, or suggesting that you and the NPC you just met have mutual clients in common. To do this, you’ll spend a Fate point. You should try to justify your story details by relating them to your aspects. GMs, you have the right to veto any suggestions that seem out of scope or ask the player to revise them, especially if the rest of the group isn’t buying into it.

Fate Points per Round
You may only spend a number of Fate points or Action points per round equal to [(your Constitution Score + your Wisdom score) / 10], to a minimum of 1 and a maximum of 4. This is known as your APPR.